


The Distance to Tahiti

by Rysler



Category: One Life to Live
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rysler/pseuds/Rysler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even apart, Blair and Tea can only think of each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Distance to Tahiti

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Through August 27, 2010

In Llanview, Blair feels like the happiest sad little girl in the world, surrounded by chaos. Filled by absence. She should be celebrating her wedding day. She should be basking in this swirl of joy and summertime moving around her. But Tea isn't here.

Tea isn't here to have Blair rub this all in her face, to be bragged to, to be mocked. And Blair notices. Blair's kind of pissed about that. After all, she's marrying Tea's ex-husband's brother. Shouldn't that count for something? Shouldn't that serve as some sort of stand-in, or maybe a symbol?

But Tea's absence makes everything else seem empty and it's not like Blair's an idiot. She can see the cracks. David and Dorian are going to implode. Starr and Cole are on the verge of major disaster. Langston's got two brothers to contend with and Blair knows, remembering Langston's confession months ago, that there are no good choices.

There are no good choices for any of them.

She believes her moronic cousin about Eli. Of course. She believes John. But it's not like that information will keep Tea from dying out there alone without her. It's not like that information will save Dorian or Langston or Starr. Her family. She has to keep all of this badness away from her family.

If Eli is dangerous, well, she can charm him. She's been doing pretty well so far. She'll keep him away from Kelly and Rex. Otherwise they're going to get themselves killed. She did all this once before, with Ross. That cold memory of that day gives her pause.

Tea's daughter's life in her hands.

Everything comes back to Tea. She can do it again.

Dorian can take care of herself. Really. So Blair gives in when Eli promises to take her away from all this, from all the people she loves and wants to keep safe, and she actually lights up when he suggests Tahiti. Blair definitely feels a draw to Tea's past. And if Ross is there, so much the better.

She remembers, even if Eli doesn't, what Ross did to Tea in that hotel room in Tahiti. Physically, with his hands. As if the gun and the kidnapping and the faked death weren't enough. She'd wanted to strangle Tea herself at times, sure.

But to threaten a child--

Blair has had a whole life dealing with her mother's crazy. Dorian's crazy. Todd's crazy. Marty Saybrooke's crazy. Eli and Ross the Wondertwins and their plans don't stand a chance.

She does admit to herself, because the pain isn't going to go away, that she's going to Tahiti to feel closer to Tea. She just hopes it works. She isn't going to be close to Tea any other way. Not anymore.

She just has to find a way to not marry Eli. Not yet.

Not while her heart is breaking.

* * *

The wooden frame in Tea's arms is solid enough to cling to, large enough to cover her heart. Present. An anchor. Her life has condensed to three people because that's all she can handle. Todd, Dani, Greg. She was a lonely child who grew into an inward woman, who loved too many dangerous men to be friends with anyone else. Competition was for the courtroom.

Her personal life, well, that was sex and that was Daniella and that was enough.

But if she closes her eyes she can imagine the picture frame held a snapshot of Starr. Her other daughter. She knows she's Starr's outlet and Starr, at times, has been hers. Tea know she belongs with the Mannings largely because of Starr, and she's grateful.

And there's Matthew and Nora and Bo, complications aside, she feels affection for them. For her life, and their lives, in the courtroom, where something bigger than they are plays out. The warmth she can make into love if she tried. She's been there for them, though. For the kids especially. For Schyler and Matthew and Cole and everyone else who's needed her at their worst moments, at their darkest times.

She can die being proud of that.

But she's not sure she can die without Blair. It's Blair's family she's holding in her arms and that makes her feel closer to Blair. And Greg has drugged her. Death has approached her. The time to be inward, the time to hold back instead of surge forward, that's all past her now. If she makes a mistake, well, she won't have to live with it for long.

She digs out her cell phone. The display is blurred. Her hands shake. But Blair's number is the fifth speed dial. She's even set up the voice command.

"Call. Blair."

And the phone begins to ring on the other side of the line. Tea holds her breath.

The phone goes to voice mail.

"Blair," she calls out. Her voice is the only part of her that still works. Her voice, and her heart. The drugs are slowing both. Heaviness sinks into her. The picture frame is all she can feel anymore. All that's left.

She wets her lips. "Blair, I love--"

And then she's gone.

END


End file.
